A family of acrobats who have been traveling the countryside for generations are now stranded by a long war and unusual weather. They pass the time entertaining others in the encampment as a way to keep from losing their craft and each other.

CREATIVE TEAM

Lynda Crawford‘s (Playwright) plays include ROJO VERDE, nominated for Outstanding Playwriting in a Staged Reading in the 2017 Planet Connections Festivity and winner of Best Overall Production of a Staged Reading and a Greener Planet Award; FAMILIAR STRANGERS (based on the book Stranger to the System by Jim Flynn), nominated for Outstanding Playwriting in a Staged Reading, Planet Connections Festivity 2016; NIGHT SHADOWS, staged reading at HB Reading Series June 2018, and at Emerging Artists’ Theatre’s New Works Series, Fall 2017; THE AUDIT, HB Playwrights Theatre, June 2017, and at Emerging Artists’ Theatre’s New Works Series, Fall 2015; PILLOW OF TEARS, William Inge PlayLab 2017, and the In Her Name Festival, 2016, and the Women Playwrights International Conference at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, 2015; STRANGE RAIN, awarded Overall Excellence in Playwriting, FringeNYC, 2013, and finalist in Reverie’s Next Generation Playwriting Competition, 2004; A PROCESSION OF CLOUDS, tied for Audience Favorite, Unchained Festival, 2013; CONSUMER BEHAVIOR (with Gary Kupper), showcased at FringeNYC, 2002, and recipient of a Playwrights’ Project grant from Abrons Arts Center, 2000 and 2001; SECRETS OF THE BIRDS, finalist, 2006 Samuel French Short Play Competition; and HOWARD INK!, finalist, John Gardner Play Competition, 2007, and showcased in the Harvest Festival, 2013. Ms. Crawford received an MFA in Creative Writing (Playwriting) in 2001 from Brooklyn College, and she is fortunate to lead the Playwriting Lab at SUNY/Empire State College in Manhattan. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the League of Professional Theatre Women, HB Studio Rehearsal Playwrights, and the K/Q Playwrights Collective. Several of her plays are available to read online at the New Play Exchange.

Terry Greiss has been working in the theatre for 45 years. He is an actor, director, producer and co-founder, of NYC’s Irondale Ensemble Project. He has performed in over forty roles with the company, and is a co-creator of most of Irondale’s original works and education programs. He has conducted hundreds of workshops in public schools, prisons, professional training programs, and theatres. He is a Master Teacher of Acting in the Broadway Teacher’s Summit. In 2010 he was awarded Brooklyn Arts Exchange’s Arts Education Award. He has been a panelist for the NEA, NYS Council on the Arts, TCG, Brooklyn Arts Council, and numerous other funding organizations. Mr. Greiss was the Founding President of the Network of Ensemble Theatres, a national consortium of artist-driven permanent theatre ensembles. He is currently a member of the governing steering committee for the Downtown Brooklyn Arts Alliance. Mr. Greiss has been part of three Russian-American collaborations between Irondale and the International Classic Center of St. Petersburg (1990, 1994, 1998). In April 2008 he was invited by the United States Embassy to lecture and teach at Moscow’s leading theatre academies, the Moscow Art Theatre and G.I.T.I.S., at the theatre academy in Yaroslavl and at to speak about the American ensemble theatre movement at the Golden Mask Festival. In addition to his work at Irondale, he has taught at the New School and the University of Wisconsin Drama Center. Occasionally venturing outside of Irondale as an actor, Mr. Greiss has performed at the Manhattan Theatre Club in HUMBLE BOY, and at the Cincinnati Playhouse in Sarah Ruhl’s adaptation of Chekhov’s THE THREE SISTERS, directed by John Doyle. On television he has been seen on PBS American Masters series, THE AMERICAN NOVEL, and HBO’s BOARDWALK EMPIRE. In October 2008, after leading Irondale’s three million dollar capital campaign, he and the Irondale Ensemble opened the Irondale Center, the company’s first permanent home, in the Brooklyn Cultural District. His latest theatrical projects are To Protect, Serve, and Understand, a collaboration between Irondale and the NYPD using improvisation to bring police officers and community members to greater empathy and understanding. In the summer of 2016 Mr. Greiss joined the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science’s Improv Travel Team, conducting improvisation workshops for scientists around the United States. For Planet Connections, he directed FAMILIAR STRANGERS in the 2016 Festivity, and ROJO VERDE in 2017, which won Best Overall Production of a Staged Reading. Mr. Greiss is a graduate of the NYC High School for the Performing Arts and Sarah Lawrence College.

YaYa Productions is the producing company for plays by Lynda Crawford, and plays by other playwrights produced by Lynda Crawford and Jon Pierson. Lynda’s plays include THE AUDIT, showcased in Emerging Artists Theatre’s New Work Series, October 2015; PILLOW OF TEARS, performed in a staged reading at the Women Playwrights International Conference 2015 in Cape Town, South Africa; STRANGE RAIN, showcased in FringeNYC 2013 and awarded Overall Excellence in Playwriting; A PROCESSION OF CLOUDS, showcased in the Unchained Festival 2013 and tied for Audience Favorite; CONSUMER BEHAVIOR(co-written with Gary Kupper), showcased at FringeNYC 2002 and the recipient of a Playwrights’ Project grant from Abrons Arts Center–Henry Street Settlement in 2000 and 2001; SECRETS OF THE BIRDS, a finalist in the 2006 Samuel French Short Play Festival; and HOWARD INK!, a finalist in the John Gardner Play Competition 2007, and produced in the Harvest Festival in LIC in 2013. Four of Lynda’s plays have been published at Indie Theatre Now (www.indietheaternow.com/Playwright/lynda-crawford). Lynda received an MFA in playwriting in 2001 from Brooklyn College, where she was fortunate to work with Jack Gelber, Mac Wellman, and Bill Hauptman. Lynda leads the playwriting lab at SUNY/Empire State College (where she was once a student), as well as a playwriting workshop in theatre and social change at NYU School of Continuing Education. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the K/Q Collective, the League of Independent Theater, and the League of Professional Theatre Women. Yaya Productions’ plays in Planet Connections 2016 and 2017 both were nominated for Best Actor and for Outstanding Playwriting. In 2017 the company was awarded the PCTF Outstanding Overall Production of a Staged Reading and the PCTF Greener Planet Award.